


Sanctuary

by HiImTrash



Category: markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Little!Ethan, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 09:29:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9601679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiImTrash/pseuds/HiImTrash
Summary: Little space is something Ethan resorts to when experiencing anxiety or stress. At some points, he has no control over whether he goes into little space as his body would simply switch immediately. His little self is innocent to the issues he faces and his childish state acts as a shield between him and his fears. It is a sanctuary for him, a place to enjoy the freedom of childhood we all relish over. Although his judgment can be clouded in his young state, and it is not easy to explain it works for him. Especially with two supportive friends aiding him.General fluff one-shots ft. Little!Ethan, Mark, and Tyler.Note: Non-sexual as to the requests of Youtubers mentioned.





	1. Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry for this, I just really have been enjoying this genre. 
> 
> I believe I am going to take this in the direction of one-shots that are mostly fluff. 
> 
> \---I am open to all suggestions anyone has for scenarios- it helps to get me into the writing mindset.---
> 
> I will say that updates may be infrequent and sporadic as I am working on a larger, more maturely written fic at the moment and school can get in the way. That being said I hope that you can still enjoy what I do write and we rejoice in the trash I write as a whole.

 

        Ethan was at the end of editing the last of the day's videos, this one had taken him late into the night, two coffee mugs deep. His eyes were fixated on the dimmed monitor in front of him, casting a shadow on the office floor.  He reviewed the last of the changes he had made, rewinding the end of the Depth footage to see if he'd left anything unnecessary. It seemed fine, a few jokes on behalf of his "carrying the team" remark and then it cut to the regular outro Mark used. Now all that was left was rendering.

As he waited he found himself losing the intense focus he'd had, noticing the large distance in the clock hands from what he remembered. It was now two in the morning, a good four hours past what he remembered. The circling loading sign only seemed to slow as the percentage inched forward. 43%, 44%... 

It dawned on Ethan that Mark and Tyler were most likely asleep at the moment. Generally, they at least said a quick goodnight before going off. Ethan didn't remember either of them being down to see him for the whole of his editing.   _Probably, didn't want to disturb me._ He had been in a focused mood, something that only happened occasionally as there was plenty of things that kept him distracted. 

45%..  _Hasn't it been five minutes?_

Staring at the loading sign wasn't making anything faster, he figured it was best to leave it to render. He linked the handles of the coffee mugs through his fingers before leaving to take them up to the kitchen. 

        The upstairs was dark, lights turned out for the night. He quickened his pace slightly, flipping the nearest light switch on. It wasn't that he was entirely afraid of the dark, it was just unnerving- too many dark horror games.

Dishes left in the sink, he'd wash them tomorrow when he wasn't feeling so drained. After spending so long working, even though he enjoyed it, it still felt a bit cramped. He needed to unwind a little, get out of his working state. Ethan had been either recording or editing videos for the majority of the day and it was often, on similar days, that he would relax with Mark and Tyler for the night. Today's work had run late and now everyone was asleep, he would have to settle for doing the same. 

He quickly passed the kitchen the hallway to the left where his door was opened partially. If the light's being off wasn't enough, he couldn't remember leaving his door open either. Maybe Mark of Tyler had needed something but it was unlike them to not ask first. 

        His pace slowed as he neared the door, warm light streaming through casting a shadow of a figure within. His eyes peered through the ajar door, a sigh of relief passing through his frame. It was just Mark, tired smile warming up as he saw his housemate. 

        "Why are you still up?" Ethan inquired, sitting down next to Mark on the side of the bed.

        "You were working long, I wasn't just going to leave you to work all night," Mark answered, setting a hand on the shoulder of the younger boy.

         Ethan acknowledged the subtext Mark insinuated. So he would still get to unwind. 

        "You get your PJ's." Mark continued, shifting his arm to let the boy move.

         Ethan moved up and to his closet, hands shifting through a few pyjamas before settling on his repeating favourite, the bright yellow Pikachu onesie.  Mark left the room as he shuffled and changed, returning shortly after with some juice in a blue sippy cup.

         He handed the pyjama-clad boy the cup as he settled into the bed, Mark tucking the covers over his chest. He added an additional small blanket on top, embroidered with the words "Ethan Nestor" followed by the date 11/24/1996. Ethan settled into the blanket and covers, back straight against the pillow. 

         "Apple juice?" Ethan asked, shaking the liquid in the cup.

         "Mmhm, your favourite as always, are you ready?" 

        Ethan nodded, a grin spreading over his mouth. He was always one to enjoy a story before bed.

In his deep voice, many come to love, Mark began reading the tale. Ethan hung on to Mark's words, sipping apple juice and commenting on the different details. 

         "Why doesn't Sir Jack get the mages to turn Prince Mar' into a merman?"

         "Because the kingdom needs Prince Mark, so he can make sure everyone is being good." Mark would patiently answer.

         "Isn't that Santa's job?"

        Nevertheless, the story kept Ethan encaptured until its end when the energetic boy began feeling tired. 

Mark ran a hand through the messy blue windstorm atop Ethan's head. 

        "We'll do something fun tomorrow, I'm proud of how well you worked today." He spoke softly, leaning to place a light kiss on Ethan's cheek.

        "Really?"

Mark beamed down at him, Ethan could be so oblivious to how well he was doing sometimes.

        "Of course, baby. Now get some sleep, it's late. Goodnight Ethan." Mark finished, setting a hand on Ethan before removing it and turning to leave.

        "Mar'?" Little Ethan called to Mark in the doorway.

Mark swivelled his head back,

         "Yes?"

         "Where's Gizmo?" The younger asked, hands shuffling through his sheets in search of his stuffed friend.

 Mark pondered for a second, wondering where he'd last left the toy Ethan treasured most. He scanned the room, hoping it would turn up. It wasn't in the room, and Ethan was now waiting for Mark to find it.

          "I'll be right back, I think you left it outside. You stay in bed, okay?"

_Where had the little toy gone?_

          Mark peered through the lounge, pushing pillows aside to see if Gizmo had been left in one of the creases.  _Not there._ Gizmo wasn't tucked away on one of the shelves either. He thought about when he had last seen the plush toy, his room.  _Right, from last night._ The three roommates had been cosy together in Mark's room, watching movies on the TV there. 

Wandering back down the hall,  Mark found Ethan outside his doorway.

          "He's right where you left him yesterday," Mark reassured, mostly confident he was right.

Ethan followed him into his room, surveying the room as did Mark. Sure enough, the little, stuffed gear was propped up against the headboard, to which Ethan and Mark both noticed. 

          "Found him!" Ethan exclaimed, quickly rounding the bed to fetch his friend.

          "Alright, now time for bed," Mark said, relieved there was no issue.

The dark haired man led the younger back into bed, retucking him and Gizmo in. 

          "Goodnight, Ethan." he said.

          "Goodnight, Mar'." the little answered, yawning as he closed his eyes. 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Cranky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan is stuck in little space, and he's acting off and disruptive. Mark and Tyler don't know what's bothering their younger roommate so much, but they need to find out soon if they want to keep their sanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayy title pun (let me enjoy the rare pun)
> 
> I've decided since this a rare chance for me to write content, I'm going to make this chapter in shorter parts so its more spaced out. Sorry for delays.
> 
> Keep on track for updates! Part:1
> 
> Also feel free to comment any suggestions of scenarios to write, I would love to hear other's ideas

 

Tyler was alerted immediately to the sound of wailing from the down the hallway, he and Mark had been eating lunch and relaxing a bit before they both carried on with working. 

His eyes shifted to Mark's and they made eye contact, an agreement passing between them. 

_Ethan._

_"_ I thought you said he was okay?" Tyler inquired, reflecting on what Mark had said.

       "He was, though, I thought he was just tired because the office computer was being a pain in the ass," Mark answered urgently, confused as to the sudden change in mood.

He was sure that was all it had been, but that was not something that would make him start crying. Ethan wasn't the type to start crying like a little kid- 

 

Little space Ethan was.

 

They both were up and out of their seats, quickly making their way down to the bedroom they seemed to frequent often. 

There Ethan was,  t-shirt thrown off to the side of the room, duvet in a similar pile on the ground. Tears streamed down his face, drops competing with each other to roll down his chin. His hands were red and clenched into tight fists. If it wasn't obvious he was bothered by something before, this made it clear.

Mark went to straightening up the room, while Tyler crouched down next to the younger boy pulling him close.

      "Hey, hey it's okay." Tyler comforted, arm steady against Ethan's back.

Mark returned with a soother in the hopes of quieting things down a bit, the small blanket Ethan treasured also draped around his arm. He wrapped the blanket around the boy, to what extent he could, and let him take the soother. The muffled sobs didn't seem to slow.  Ethan still whining as he slumped against Tyler who held him steady. 

      "What's got you so upset?" Mark asked, lowering himself to eye level with the younger boy.

It didn't do much asking though, sobbing and the soother keeping Ethan from verbally answering. He did respond, however, shuffling his arm out of the blanket and Tyler's grasp. A shaky finger pointed behind him seemingly at a book thrown off to the side and standing on its own pages. 

Mark made his way to the other end of the room to investigate the supposed start of Ethan's tantrum. It was one of Ethan's colouring books, this one themed around the ocean with its different fish and creatures. The pages seemed regular as could be, most coloured in the soft pressure of crayons. It was a common pastime for Ethan when everyone was busy. He found the last coloured in the page, a half coloured-in dolphin in front of a bubbly background.  Beside it on the opposite page was a picture of a turtle which Mark remembered colouring in himself when Ethan insisted he colour with him. 

From what he could gather Ethan had been in a little space for a while before the outbreak, colouring while everyone worked. It was then Mark recalled hearing Tyler talking to someone. It must have been Ethan he'd talked to, telling him he was too busy at the moment. Mark supposed he might be upset no one was available, but generally, if that was the case he would continue asking until he was told off for it.

Taking the book with him, Mark returned and showed it to Tyler. Tyler examined it, a hand still rubbing Ethan's shoulder, the younger now considerably calmed down to just sniffling and hiccups.

      "You have any idea why this is making him so upset? You did tell him you were busy earlier, right?"

       "Yeah, I did tell him I was busy. But he just left off to do his own thing. The colouring book- I have no idea why. Maybe he pointed to the wrong thing?"

Ethan responded to this, squirming every part of his body in frustration.

       "Hey, hey calm down. You ready to tell us what's wrong?"

The blue haired boy retreated back to being hidden in the blanket, face obscured against Tyler's chest. Then he was back to square one, squirmy and muffled whining. 

*

     "He doesn't just get randomly upset though, there has to be some sort of reason," Tyler exclaimed, still on the case of Ethan's outbreak.

 

     "Kids **do** though, it's probably something small and not worth worrying over." Mark tried to reason.

 

     "He's not a regular kid though, you're forgetting he's actually an adult. It can be something worth worrying over and I want to know." Tyler said sternly and concentrated.

 

The creak of floorboards brought their conversation to an end, Tyler swivelling his head to find Ethan stepping out of his room. His hair was a fluffy, blue hurricane on top of his head. He looked rather tired, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes from napping. 

 

      "Hey, guys." He announced to the others, rummaging through the cupboards for anything to eat.

 

Mark and Tyler shared a look, he was out of little space for the moment and appeared to be unaware of what went down.

 

       "Neither of you get coffee yet or am I missing something?" Ethan asked when there was no response.

       

       "Actually we wanted to ask-" Tyler started.

     

       "If you could get us some coffee, Tyler forgot to make some last night." Mark finished- giving a glance Tyler's way.

 

  _Not now,_ Mark thought. Ethan had just woken up and the last thing they needed was to upset him the moment he seemed to be alright. Of course, Tyler showed he disagreed with it. He wanted to know what was wrong so he could help Ethan solve it.

       "Alright then, two coffees for the creepy twins. I'm guessing you want equal amounts of sugar in both?"

    

       Mark shook his head, "I'll skip the sugar, the cream would be great if we've got it though."

 

       "And you Ty?"

 

       Tyler zoned back in, "Oh, uh, I'll take a bit of sugar."

 

Ethan brought them their coffee's shortly after, along with the cereal he got for himself, sitting down at the table. He seemed to be doing alright, nothing overtly wrong. 

       

       "You sleep alright?" Tyler asked.

 

        "Fine. Still tired though, heck I don't even remember when I went for a nap. Suppose I went after finishing editing."

 

        "Probably. Computer give you any hassle?" Mark inquired this time.

 

        "Nope. I think it's been working better lately, maybe it was just was connectivity problems last time." Ethan responded.

 

       "It might've been, no way to really be sure about what's wrong with it though. It's not like you can just ask it." Tyler answered, emphasis on the last bit. 

 

       "No, sometimes you just have to wait it out to see if it fixes on its own," Mark responded back, adding emphasis as well.


End file.
